This report by SchoolDash shows there is a striking overlap between places in England with slow public transport and places with struggling secondary school.
Instead of only looking at education data, researchers compared schools using journey times from the Department for Transport. They found clusters of bad transport and underachieving schools in places such as Norfolk and north-east England. Even in richer areas, poor transport seemed linked to lower school results.
Among primary schools, geographical isolation has relatively little impact on school effectiveness; poverty is a much bigger driver.
For secondary schools, however, poverty and isolation seem to act in concert. Among the relatively small number of secondary schools with high levels of both, two-thirds are rated 'Requires Improvement' or 'Inadequate.
The areas in which these schools are located also showed high levels of support for Brexit and large swings towards the Conservatives in the 2019 general election, suggesting that their improvement may be a matter not only of education policy but also national politics.